[QUOTE=Cervaise]
Well, duh, it’s Budweiser. Every day after work, I twist the cap off a Michelob, and then it’s Blowjob City, Population Me.
[/QUOTE]
If he builds his city down the pike from Intercourse, PA then he has an excellent chance of dipping into a steady supply of horny commuters who moved to that part of America for the sheer pleasure of hearing this ever afternoon:
" We’ll be pulling out of Intercourse and chugging our way to Blowjob City in just a few moments, folks. "
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse]
…Just what does the Army want from it’s recruits?
[/QUOTE]
A vertical profile. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0503-08.htm
Commercials showing high-school dropouts gaining employment at wealthy tech firms through danger-free Military education are not quite believeable any more. Neither are CGI-generated video-game fantasies of slaying dragons (that breathe fire but are blessedly free of improvised explosive devices). The Bush administration has less and less to offer its soldiers, now or later or just plain ever http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Dishonorable_discharge_112603.htm , and so the advertising increasingly relies on things that can’t be measured and can’t be laid at the feet of the government. So the military becomes not a way to improve yourself or your prospects or defeat an important enemy (anybody ever notice this? Recruitment advertising pretty much has steered clear of any hint of WMDs, Saddam’s connection to terrorism, etc.) or to reap the rewards of a grateful government. What’s left? That which can be assumed and can’t be hung on the government: the lack of a father’s approval. Statistically, it must exist, and it will bring in bodies who are joining for reasons that have nothing to do with any obligation their country might assume in return for their sacrifice. Perfect.
This administration has the gall to spend its military without any ability or inclination to protect it (inadequate armor? Who sent our kids into battle so equipped?) or control it (see Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo). Like Phaeton, they deserve to bear the fruits of their arrogance alone.
[QUOTE=Cartooniverse]
If he builds his city down the pike from Intercourse, PA then he has an excellent chance of dipping into a steady supply of horny commuters who moved to that part of America for the sheer pleasure of hearing this ever afternoon:
" We’ll be pulling out of Intercourse and chugging our way to Blowjob City in just a few moments, folks. "
[/QUOTE]
It might not be the definition of “sexual relations”, but going from Intercourse to Blowjob City is certainly better than having to resort to the Bird-in hand method.
[QUOTE=The King of Soup]
This administration has the gall to spend its military without any ability or inclination to protect it (inadequate armor? Who sent our kids into battle so equipped?) or control it (see Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo). Like Phaeton, they deserve to bear the fruits of their arrogance alone.
[/QUOTE]
I admire your turn of phrase, you have eloquently stated exactly how I feel. Indeed they deserve to bear the fruits of their arrogance alone.
Instead, they force Reserve soldiers to go and serve, have limbs blown off and then refuse them the same level of housing and care that non-Reserve soldiers get. The documentary showing 8 men in a tiny apartment on a base in Germany, struggling to get the most bare-bones ( pardon the horrific pun ) level of care, was haunting.
Bush, Cheney, Halliburton… they won’t bear any fruits. They will have made off with the next generation’s coffers worth of American value, and left this generation spattered with physically damaged and emotionally scarred young adults. They have whored out hundreds of thousands of American youth of both genders to serve their pocketbooks.
Would that they choked on that fruit. Tragically…and sadly… they are in a position to spit the fruit in the face of America, and saunter off to Geneva Savings and Loan, where one keeps the spoils of war safe from inquiring eyes. :mad:
Father: You’re a changed man.
Son: What do you mean?
Father: You did two things back there that you’ve never done before, at least to your old man. You bent me over a chair and gave me reach-around–at the same time. Where’d you learn that?
<display armed forces logo>
[QUOTE=Sequent]
Father: … Where’d you learn that?
[/QUOTE]
Son: Well, Dad, it started when I put my hand in the goo that used to be my best friend’s face, only it wasn’t quite goo, and it wasn’t his face…
[QUOTE=mhendo]
Every time i see it, the whole feeling is that it’s just the kid and his mother. Of course, this is in fact the case in many American families; it just struck me as a little cynical that they chose to portray the black family in this way.
[/QUOTE]
I agree, it is cynical as hell. It may also speak to a lot of people.
Sea story time, here, but while I was in the Navy my part of it was mostly filled with children of white, middle class upbringings. But there were a few minorities. Not because of any attempt to keep minorities out of the Nuc field, but as a consequence of the difference in quality of education between schools in middle America, and that in the still mostly poorer areas that minorities often are found. One thing that brought home something that I’d always believed - and made it more than just a reasoned belief - was when one of those few minorities came back from leave in a state of bemusement.
He’d just been hit with a bit of culture shock, and what made it worse was that he’d had to admit he was the one whose attitudes had been changing. Military personnel enjoy griping, be it about food, pay, quarters, or anything else. I swear, sometimes, we’d complain about being fed steak. Anyways, he’d left on leave complaining about his car, which while paid for wasn’t the best, his apartment, his chances for continuing advancement (in the Nuc field advancement to E-5 is generally lighning fast, beyond that is slower’n molasses.), and our ship’s deployment schedule. In otherwords, he’d left feeling he was in a pretty raw place. While he was home he found out that he was the success story of all his friends and classmates. He had a stable job, with prospects for continuing advancement, even if they were slow. He had goals for his post-military life, and the means to achieve them. He did own his car. He lived in a nice neighborhood, with good schools.
Trying to target recruiting ads to the urban would seem to be a smart idea. Of course, avoiding racist overtones would be a good idea. :rolleyes:
I see the OP’s point about the ads, but I do want to add this: I find them far less annoying that “Army of One” campaign. To me military service is about teamwork, not individual prowess. Of course part of my emotional reaction is because my father and I did become closer after I entered the military. Make of that what you will.
Join The Army, Meet New Friends, And Kill Them!
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
From Roger Dodger:
Roger: You can’t sell a product without first making people feel bad.
Nick: Why not?
Roger: Because it’s a substitution game. You have to remind them that they’re missing something from their lives. Everyone’s missing something, right?
[/QUOTE]
Nearly all advertising reminds me of a sci-fi metaphor in Philip K. Dick’s The Simulacra.
This one is no different.
[QUOTE=Sequent]
Father: You’re a changed man.
Son: What do you mean?
Father: You did two things back there that you’ve never done before, at least to your old man. You bent me over a chair and gave me reach-around–at the same time. Where’d you learn that?
<display armed forces logo>
[/QUOTE]
But then that’d be a Navy commercial.
[QUOTE=RandMcnally]
But then that’d be a Navy commercial.
[/QUOTE]
Nah, Navy commericals are like this
But that’s still better then the marines. All they do is climb a sheer rock face.
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
I find them far less annoying that “Army of One” campaign. To me military service is about teamwork, not individual prowess. Of course part of my emotional reaction is because my father and I did become closer after I entered the military. Make of that what you will.
[/QUOTE]
I agree. The Army of One campaign is stupid. There’s no such thing as an “Army of One” except in movies and video games. Real life doesn’t work that way.
The Navy’s “Accelerate your life” is only slightly less stupid.
[QUOTE=Xploder]
Ya know, for a leftie, pinko, scumbag
[/quote]
Is that what realists are called these days?
Thank you kindly.
Here’s a vote for the US Army to bring back the “Be All You Can Be” slogan that worked so well for so long.
[QUOTE=RandMcnally]
But then that’d be a Navy commercial.
[/QUOTE]
Rum, Sodomy And The Lash: If You’re Still Interested, A Career In the Navy Awaits
Seems to me that nowadays the military recruiters are having a tougher time convincing parents that letting their kids join is a good idea, so they’re pulling out the tired old “the Military will make a man out of you” crap.
Well, I know the military has to paint themselves in a positive light to get recruits, but I just chuckle whenever I see most of the U.S. Navy ads. 1/2 of them are about the SEALS and the others show pilots. 1 out of 10,000 naval personnel have a shot at the SEALS and everyone knows that 99% of naval aviators come from the Academy.
I wonder if there is some dude slopping food onto a tray, buried in the hull of a ship for 60 days at a time going “They never said this in the fucking commercial”.
[QUOTE=Case Sensitive]
Rum, Sodomy And The Lash: If You’re Still Interested, A Career In the Navy Awaits
[/QUOTE]
And remember, Cannabalism is no longer a big problem in the modern navy.
[QUOTE=Lissa]
I wonder if there is some dude slopping food onto a tray, buried in the hull of a ship for 60 days at a time going “They never said this in the fucking commercial”.
[/QUOTE]
Well, in my day we called them ‘paint chippers’ or ‘deck apes’ (sloppin food in the galley was actually not bad duty, though I never had to do it 
)…but yeah, I know of a few myself. And this was with the old style ads. Hell, the first week in boot camp you are going to be wondering where the hell THIS all came from…
As for the OP…I have to admit I don’t have a major problem with it. But then, I realize as soon as I see it that its going to be sappy…its a recruting ad after all. What did ya’ll expect? Army, Navy Air Force Marines! What a great place its a GREAT place to start!!
As for the point some are making that this father/son relationship shown is wrong or disfunctional somehow because its not like their own…well, you know, different strokes for different folks and all that. I know a lot of (mostly white) families where fathers and sons are quite reserved towards each other…respectful (in some) but reserved. I always figured it was ‘white’ thing (my own family is rather outgoing and demonstrative…and loud and noisy and in each others business constantly). Reguardless I never tried to project what MY family was like as if it were some kind of standard that everyone else must measure up too. Diffrent strokes and all that.
If it takes a son going away to ‘grow up’ and ‘become a man’ in his fathers eyes…well, that doesn’t seem unreasonable to me as an attitude. In my family it takes basically getting married and having kids to ‘grow up’ and ‘become a man’. I disagree with BOTH attitudes, but I can understand the viewpoint. And it IS a real viewpoint for some.
In the end its just, you know, an ad to try and entice some folks into joining the military. Something thats been going on in one form or another since there WERE armies. Nothing to get really worked up about IMHO.
-XT
[QUOTE=DMark]
I don’t know if you have seen this obnoxious television ad for the U.S. Army, but dad is at a bar with his son in uniform and dad is just about bustin’ his buttons with pride at how wonderful his son has turned out, obviously thanks to his joining the U.S. Army and says., “You did two things you never did before. You shook my hand – and you looked me square in the eye.”
[/QUOTE]
In a perfect world, with utter Truth In Advertising, the next line would have to read:
“Because I sure did a shitty job of teaching you proper manners and confidence.”
[QUOTE=CynicalGabe]
What kind of dumbass delinquent was this kid before that shaking your dad’s hand is something to be proud of?
I share the OPs general opinion. I hate all of the military recruiting ads.
[/QUOTE]
But I want to fight dragons while standing on a bridge of fire. They’re doing that in Baghdad, I think.